All roads lead to Rome. And, that’s where George Frideric Handel, not yet 22 years of age, arrived at the end of 1706. Eager to perfect his skills in composition…
Year: 2021
Rossini’s Maometto II, in its Full Original Naples Version, Comes to Life Thanks to Flexible Young Singers at the “Rossini in Wildbad” Festival
I have written with enthusiasm about numerous recordings from the Rossini festival that is held each summer – well, except 2020 – in Wildbad (in Germany’s Black Forest region). One…
The 20th Oxford Lieder Festival: Nature’s Songbook
The Oxford Lieder Festival (8 – 23 October 2021) will celebrate its 20th anniversary this autumn. Celebrating the magical art of song, an astonishing array of artists will appear in more than…
English Touring Opera announces new Music Advisory Panel
Alongside the recent appointment of conductor Gerry Cornelius as Music Director, English Touring Opera has appointed two new Artists in Association: Holly Mathieson and Jonathan Peter Kenny. Mathieson is a…
Met Stars Live in Concert: Three Divas
From Four Wagnerians to Three Divas; from the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden to the 250-year-old theatre of Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles. And, for Christine Goerke, from the opera stage…
Kát’a Kabanová at Glyndebourne: a caged bird sings
“I’d go out into the garden early in the morning, just as the sun was rising, I’d fall to my knees and pray and weep, and I wouldn’t know what…
A new La clemenza di Tito from Richard Jones at the ROH
Over fifteen months since I had last set foot in an opera house—for Carmen at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden—it felt extraordinary to be back. All else would be secondary.…
Music fit for an Emperor: Bampton Classical Opera at St John’s Smith Square
It’s a brave company that celebrates the return of live performance with an opera titled La corona, but ambitious, innovative and imaginative describe Bampton Classical Opera perfectly, and it was…
Handelian Pyrotechnics from William Towers
‘Pyrotechnics’, noun (plural): a public show of fireworks; a show of great skill, especially by a musician or someone giving a speech. William Towers’ recent recording of Handel arias, with…
BBC Proms: audiences return to the Proms in a celebration of live music
Six weeks of live concerts every day from the Royal Albert Hall in its 150th-anniversary year Audiences welcomed back to attend Proms in person A celebration of the riches of…